Alice awoke slowly, staring at a strange ceiling. She felt ... fine, she thought. Nothing seemed to hurt, but she felt as weak a newborn kitten. She tried to raise her head but found she couldn't muster the strength to pick it up from the pillow. Alice sighed, surprised at the inability to do such a basic task.

  "She's awake!" An unfamiliar female voice said, the pounding of feet immediately audible.

  Two figures appeared in Alice's vision, peering down at her, concern evident on their faces. Dan and Bridgette stared at her, shock on their faces.

  "What's the matter guys? I'm sure I don't look that bad," she tried to joke, coughing weakly as she did so. Bridgette sobbed, throwing herself onto the prone woman, Alice wincing as the rger barbarian's weight smmed into hers. Dan grabbed her hand, tears in his eyes, as Alice gnced at him curiously. "Did it work?"

  "It did," he nodded, sobbing. "Thank you. There will never be enough words. Thank you." Alice nodded, happy to have succeeded, and let herself drift back to sleep.

  She awoke again, finding Bridgette lying next to her, spooning protectively around the smaller healer. Alice felt stronger this time, climbing out of bed on shaky legs, careful not to wake the sleeping warrior.

  As she did, she felt Fi's presence fill her briefly, delivering a message.

  A sacrifice was required to break the curse and a sacrifice was made. I am truly sorry to tell you what you have lost in the bargain. You will never bear children, but you have saved the life of this woman. Rejoice in your victory, as hard-fought as it was, and know that I am sorry for your loss, my dear.

  Alice stopped, frozen in shock at the message. Children wasn't something she had really thought about, certainly not in the short term, but to suddenly have a dream ripped from her grasp without knowing it - she sunk to her knees, sobbing. Unbidden, dreams of a future where she and Bridgette sat, comfortably middle-aged with a clutch of their own children pying around them sprang into her mind. Dreams that she could never fulfill, not as a mother, now soured in her mind. Alice let herself drown in the sorrow, grabbing onto her sides as she buried her head against the side of the bed, tears wracking her frame as the sense of loss ravaged her.

  At some point, her crying must have woken Bridgette, because she felt strong arms surrounding her, lifting her, and comforting her. She remembered a tear-filled expnation, sobbing as she expined the consequences of her actions to Bridgette, who clung to her as they cried together, their shared loss binding them closer together. Hours passed, the two women clinging to one another in their grief, as the day shifted into evening. Finally, the growling of Alice's stomach forced her to confront the reality of not having eaten in days, and they climbed from the bed. With hollow eyes, Alice dressed mechanically, throwing on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt, not even noticing the message on it as Bridgette led her downstairs to eat.

  As she entered the common room, she stopped, stunned. Jenni sat next to Dan at a table, carefully eating a meal as her husband watched her like a hawk. Jenni's once blonde hair was now striped a deep pink coloring, simir to the color that Alice or Bridgette's took on when channeling Aphrodite's power. The tavern keeper's wife shot to her feet on unsteady legs as she saw Alice, rushing over and grabbing the healer in a fierce embrace, crushing the wind from Alice's lungs as she struggled to stand.

  Jenni pulled back slightly, staring Alice straight in the face. "Fi told me what it cost you, healing me. And that you did it without knowing the cost. Thank you." She then pulled Alice into another hug, sobbing as she did so. Alice's emotions, already frayed from the previous hours, broke again, and she started sobbing as well, the two women crying and holding each other as the rest of the tavern awkwardly looked on. Dan rose and walked over, putting his arms around the two women and hugging them, whispering his thanks to Alice as well.

  Eventually, they separated and walked back to the table and sat, Bridgette drawing up chairs for Alice and herself. Dan rushed off and returned with food for the women. He gnced at his wife, who nodded at him as he pced his hand protectively over hers, before turning and looking at Alice.

  "We know what you did for us. We can never repay you, not in a million lifetimes. While you may never have any children of your own, we're going to do our best to give you as many nieces and nephews as you can possibly dream of. And the first girl will be named Alice. We both prayed to Fi, trying to find a way to thank you for sacrifice, and felt inspired that this was the right choice."

  Alice smiled weakly, exhausted by the constant emotional outbursts. "I would like that, very much. But I would do it again, even knowing. You did nothing wrong, didn't deserve that fate, and I'm gd to have helped. Where is Colin, by the way? I couldn't have done it without him."

  Dan blushed, gncing up at the ceiling of the common room. "A week ago, a giant wolf and a small elven woman showed up, looking for him. Scared the shit out of everyone until she turned out to be friendly. They're currently upstairs, sleeping I guess? Or whatever it is elves do."

  "A week ago?" Alice asked, confused. "How long was I out? We just got here a few days ago."

  Bridgette grimaced, gncing at Alice before correcting. "We got here, spent one day figuring things out, then three days powering up for the ritual, then you guys spent literally a full day casting, and finally you've been unconscious for two weeks, A. Deirdre showed up a week ago. She has been teaching weapons skills to folks and patrolling around the area with Colin, while I've been here in the tavern, praying you'll wake back up."

  "Two and a half weeks? We were already going to be a week te getting back home." Alice made to rise from her chair, swaying as her weak limbs protested the abrupt movement. "We've got to hurry." Bridgette carefully helped her lover back to her seat, scolding her.

  "We can't leave until you're healthy again, Alice. I know we're going to be way overdue, and they're going to panic, but if we left now, you'd just pass out again a mile down the road, and we'd be screwed anyway. You need to rest and recover before we try to leave." Alice sighed in resignation, unable to come up with a viable argument. She dug into her stew again, mechanically chewing the meal as her mind spun. Weeks overdue, at this point. Becky, Kyle, and the others in Persistence were going to lose their minds, wondering what happened to them. They had to get home as quickly as possible, but Bridgette was right, there was no way she could keep up the pace for the several hundred miles between here and home.

  As Alice finished her third helping of stew, Deirdre and Colin descended the stairs into the common room of the inn, gncing around and rushing over when they saw she was awake. To Alice's surprise, the strange elven woman even pulled her into a hug, whispering words of comfort to her. Colin gave her a hug as well, awkward but typical for the goofy wizard.

  "You know, your hair is pretty unique now, Alice. Kind of badass," he said.

  "Huh?" Alice stared at him bnkly. She hadn't bothered to look in a mirror since waking, she had felt so horrible and hadn't cared about her appearance. Bridgette reached out, gently grasping a strand of Alice's hair and raising it to her field of view. Alice's typical bck hair now contained a solid streak of pink, simir to Jenni's, almost like that female superhero with white-and-bck hair, except hers was pink-and-bck. "Neat," she said, shrugging. She had a hard time caring at this point, a new hair color doing little to blunt the pain she was trying to bury deep inside. She took a breath, sighing. "Thank you for the help, Colin. We couldn't have saved her without you and your magic."

  "Not a problem, A - it wasn't the most fun experience, but it was just pain. Nothing permanent. I'm sorry."

  Alice spun on him, suddenly angry. "Would you stop saying you're sorry? Would everyone just stop saying they're sorry? Sorry doesn't change things." She stalked out of the room to everyone's stunned expressions, rage overriding reason as she couldn't expin why she'd just lost her temper, but irrationally angry with everyone treating her like gss. She made it back up to the bedroom she'd awoken in, smming the door so hard a picture frame fell off the wall, before throwing herself into bed and crying herself to sleep.